The Education of Racial and Cultural Minorities in the United States

Abstract

In a world in which status and social mobility are more and more affected by levels of education, students of minority-majority relations must examine carefully the distribution of educational opportunities, the trends, and the outcomes. As we focus on the most deprived of America’s minorities, we hope to suggest principles and facts that demonstrate the significance of education in maintaining or, as can be the case, weakening patterns of inequality.¹ We are convinced that “schools make a difference” (see Summers and Wolfe 1977).² It is essential for students of minority-majority relations to study the conditions under which they reinforce the structures of inequality and when they promote equality.